Ah, sweet ignorance

So - a week ago, the St. Augustine Record offered its point of view on allowing concealed carry on Florida college campuses:

"The three Republicans on the committee voted along partisan lines for it. The two Democrats voted no. The party line is not likely to change in a full vote before either the House or Senate."

1.  All well and good and not a gun issue, but let's note that they consider Republicans as voting along "partisan lines" - well, so did the democrats. Subtle bias there.

"Proponents argue that permitting armed students on campus would be a deterrent to crime, assault and the random killings we’ve all grown to dread. But doesn’t allowing guns on campus work for both the victim and the predator, the assaulter and the assaulted?"

2.  How many times does it need to be said?  The predator/assaulter is clearly not deterred by rules that the law-abiding student/faculty obey.  If they were, there would be no assaulter.  This does not allow what some prefer to call "illegal guns" on campus; it is not saying just anyone can carry a gun on campus.  It allows those who already legally carry a firearm off-campus to carry it on campus.  Perhaps if you read some research you'd see that those who possess concealed carry permits are less likely to commit crime than the general population and even law enforcement officers (e.g., here).

"Does anyone believe that the generally-twisted minds of gunmen who’ve opened fire on college campuses would have been deterred by the thought of shooting it out with fellow students rather than shooting them down?"

3.  Does anyone think that a policy/regulation against carrying a firearm on campus has had deterrent any effect on the generally-twisted minds of gunmen, that their plans for mass murder were thwarted by "campus policy"?  And the issue here is not simply deterrence - although, again, research shows that criminals' uncertainty, inability to know which targets are soft/unarmed IS a deterrent - but to give the assaulted" an opportunity to defend themselves against such "twisted" people.  We would all prefer avoidance and deterrence, but if necessary, will take defense.

"It’s a troubling sign of political times when lawmakers speak of areas such as college campuses, churches and bars as “gun-free” zones, as if each is a geographic infringement upon some universal right to carry a gun at all times and in all circumstances.

We’re proponents of gun rights, but nothing is without limits."

4.  You take far-too-limited a view of what is at stake here.  The inherent right that is being infringed is the right to self-defense. You assume that campus rules and campus police can serve this function.  Rules, just as with laws, only deter those who care about their consequences; one who is committed to mayhem cares little about what its consequences will be for them.  Police, rather than preventing crime in some global sense (in fact, courts have held that it is not their role to protect individuals), far more often investigate crime and arrest criminals (those who do not die in their act). Nice obligatory reference to gun rights, but clearly you miss the point - and are really jumping through hoops to try to make your own.

"Give it a year or two: See how safe pistol-packing politicians make the capitol — and then consider giving guns to frightened 18-year-old coeds and liquored-up frat boys, all simmering in the hormonal stew of adolescence that feeds often-bewildering lapses of judgment in the best of circumstances."

5.  I think it is a fine idea to allow legally carried firearms in the capitol, but not as a pilot for campus carry.  In that regard this idea is nonsensical.  But you once again fail to understand what you are talking about.  "Giving guns"?  Are we talking about issuing them now.  We are talking about legally carried and licensed carry.  In accordance with existing law, an 18-year-old (coed or not) cannot legally carry a concealed firearm.  So, to your concern, no campus policy needed.  As to those who are 21 and over, who carry legally subsequent to taking appropriate training and receiving a license to do so, they are already carrying in your community.  It probably frightens you so you prefer to to acknowledge it, but it is likely you have been within arms' length of a concealed firearm this very day - at Publix, Walmart, McDonald's and as you stroll the mall or your local sidewalk.  What makes the college campus unique?

This is just another example of people who do not know what they are talking about, making arguments based on misinformation and ignorance.